Day 76
Mile 1068 to 1089, 21 miles
Cost: camped, free

I woke up just before the sun started to stream through my tent, it was going to be another warm day and the mosquitoes were already trying to get through my bug netting!

I know I’ve mentioned the wildflowers quite a few times over the past week or so, but everyday just keeps getting better and better!

Looking back to a peak called The Nipple – no joke

As we climbed up the elephant’s back towards Carson Pass we started passing more and more day hikers coming the opposite way, then we realised it was a Saturday and lots of people had come to see the wildflowers.

We descended to Carson Pass where there was a visitor centre and car park and I hoped there might be a vending machine or some kind of snacks to buy. What we found was even better! There were picnic tables and volunteer staff who offered us cold coke and chocolate bars from an ice box, then biscuits, chips and fruit – it was incredible, thank you so much!!

Thank you to the Carson visitor centre for this lunch!!

Carson Pass visitor centre

We left and walked through meadows past lots of day hikers and fisherman and climbed steeply up towards Showers Lake – it was incredibly humid in the meadows and we were dripping with sweat when we got to the top and saw Showers Lake. Mrs Smith looked at me and we were thinking the exact same thing… We caught up to Mr Smith, walked around the lake and found a perfect place to go for a swim. For a change the water was actually quite warm and there were NO mosquitoes!! We stayed a while in the water trying not to get our feet nibbled by the tiny fish and washed our clothes then dried out while lying on the boulders. It felt so nice to feel “clean” and our clothes looked like new!

We continued on and found a great little camp spot for the 4 of us. There was even phone service so we quickly set up camp, ate dinner and were all in our tents being antisocial by 7:30pm! I was updating my blog and the Smiths were watching Game of Thrones on their phone!